


you say we're just friends (but friends don't know the way you taste)

by justprompts



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Humor, Light-Hearted, M/M, Yule Ball (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:26:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27989187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justprompts/pseuds/justprompts
Summary: James Potter was a shitty person. (and too much in love with Lily Evans.)Which is why, Remus was here - in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory, crouched into a safe alcove on the side, under an invisibility cloak with James while Peter was on the window sill - as a rat, or that would be awkward - and Sirius, the only attention seeking grim, in the middle of the room, having his belly lazily scratched by Marlene and Alice.
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Mary Macdonald/Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 67





	you say we're just friends (but friends don't know the way you taste)

**Author's Note:**

> Light hearted fluff, some Jily and Wolfstar Yule Ball prompts!!
> 
> Enjoy <3

James Potter was a shitty person. (and too much in love with Lily Evans.)

No, seriously, he was. And a loser friend, and a harassing peer-pressurizing little bully who thought that he could get anything he wanted from Remus by just a little begging and Honeydukes Chocolate.

Admittedly, it worked, but that obviously wasn't Remus's fault.

Which is why, he was here - in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory, crouched into a safe alcove on the side, under an invisibility cloak with James while Peter was on the window sill - as a rat, or that would be awkward - and Sirius, the only attention seeking grim, in the middle of the room, having his belly lazily scratched by Marlene and Alice. Remus could almost feel him preening under all the attention and the hair ruffling and the coos. 

The whole plan, as James liked to call it - Find Out If Lily Evans Already Has A Date To The Yule Ball, A.K.A Will Evans Kick James In The Balls If He Asks Her - had started in the afternoon, the last weekend before the Yule Ball.

Remus himself had no desire or inclination to ask anyone - well, anyone was stretching it - but either way, it wasn't possible. And knowing James, he had a fair amount of hope that they would be going as bachelors together. Too many girls had already asked James and Sirius, and a grand total of two had asked Remus, but none of the marauders had said yes. In fact, it was almost like they all had plans - in their head, if only, like that someone they were waiting for.

Peter - the fat rat - scurried impatiently on the window sill, as if waiting for the Yule Ball conversation to begin. James had insisted they all get Obscuro Head Sets so that if the girls suddenly - and randomly - started changing, they could use them. Pointless, considering this was the weekend, but Remus had to give James points for his misguided chivalry.

"Okay, Lils, where'd you find this dog?" Marlene asked suddenly, looking over to Lily who was sitting on her bed, writing on a piece of parchment balancing on the bed headset.

"It kind of followed me?" Lily said, absently, dotting something with her quills, not looking up yet. "Wierd really, but maybe it's just an extraordinarily smart dog."

"What the hell are you even doing, Lily?" Dorcas asked, getting up from her bed and peeking at her parchment. "You've been at this since an hour."

Lily frowned at her, eyebrows scrunching together. "Its Tuney's birthday this week. And I've rewritten this letter a hundred million times - it still sounds like something she would hate, so I don't know. And since, she hates all the freak magic," Lily wriggled her hands, with a mocking expression, "that I do, I'm sending it to my parents two days before, and they're going to courier it through the mailbox."

Well. Remus reflected, that sounded like an awful lot of work - and this birthday person sounded too uptight. James looked at him with a panicked expression, exaggeratedly mouthing, "Who's Tuna?"

Remus sighed silently, as Lily got up, and dumped all her writing stuff on the desk. "Ugh, nevermind. I give up. She hates me anyway, don't know why I'm trying," she said, irritably, as Marlene and Alice passed her sympathetic glances. 

Marlene rubbed Sirius - the black dog's - belly a final time, then got up with a decisive clap of her hands. "Alright, girls, Yule Ball dates?"

They all groaned.

In five part symphony.

Remus could feel James starting to bounce excitedly.

"I - I know who I want to go with," Mary Macdonald said, from the side, a little shyly. "But he probably won't say yes to me."

Lily stood up from the rug, with a scowl. "Mary, anyone would be lucky to go with you. Who're you planning to ask?"

"I'm not planning to ask anybody," she said, flopping down on her bed with a thud. "I just wish he had the fucking balls to ask me - "

Alice laughed, getting up too and leaving Sirius alone - who, to his credit, just got up without complain and sat straight - quite obviously listening to their conversation. "I'm going with Frank. And he didn't have the guts to ask me, so I asked him - and Merlin, I could see the stars in his eyes. Flattering, really. Come on, Mary, just ask him out."

Remus and James exchanged glances.

That was not what Longbottom told them. 

Mary suddenly sat up straight with a determined expression. "Okay, don't laugh. But I'm going to ask Peter."

Remus covered James's mouth as he visibly stifled a snort. Peter looked at them in a totally smug way, if rats could look smug.

Lily grinned at her, laughing, "He'll say yes, Mary, come on. And he's not that bad, why would we laugh? He's sweet enough."

James tensed next to him, as Remus shook his head, and mouthed, "She's not into him," at him, stupid comfort which somehow seemed to work. 

"I would ask Black," Marlene said, with a grimace. "But I have that wager going."

They all laughed, and James looked at Remus with a cocked eyebrow. What wager? And it was obviously about Sirius, they should know.

"Can't believe you would want to go with Black," Lily said, and James positively beamed. "He's so - ," she made a series of gestures, which Remus pointedly did not decipher, " - and so - "

"Hot," Marlene finished for her, as Sirius stretched once, looking in their direction with a clear smirk. "He's hot, and he's definitely the best after-Yule-Ball-shag you can get. I mean, the bloke's experienced."

James shook Remus's shoulder, and gave him a strange look, as Remus blinked, suddenly realizing that he had been glaring at Marlene - and clenching his right fist, so hard that it was fight, with little crescent fingernail marks.

Lily looked at Marlene with squinty eyes, as if trying to find out whether she still had her sanity intact. 

Alice turned to Lily with a sly smile,

"What about you darling?" she said, raising an eyebrow at Lily. "Who are you going with?"

Lily looked at her as if she was stupid.

"Potter, obviously," she said, in a tone that said 'duh' and 'do you even have to ask', as Remus looked at James, who was half choking. "He hasn't asked me yet, and if he doesn't by tonight, I'll tell him we're going together."

James sputtered more. Was there something they had missed here?

"Ask him, you mean," Dorcas corrected, bemusedly.

"Nah, I'm gonna tell him," Lily corrected nonchalantly, walking to her bed. "He won't say no, I don't think, he's been passing me all these strange, wistful looks. And he's been quite decent this year. Probably doesn't want to ask because he thinks it might ruin whatever friendship we've made."

James looked at Remus incredulously, as Remus glared at him. They could have just waited tonight, and never had to sneak into the dorms like this - Merlin, James - who had come over most of his understandable shock, and was now looking at Lily with the when-should-I-propose-marriage look.

"And if he does say no," Lily continued, as Remus physically stopped James from saying yes right here, "Well, it would even out scales a little, wouldn't it? He's asked me out too many times - and he may have been joking, I know - but well, its the best I can think of."

James shook his head sincerely in a I would Never Joke About This, Lily-Flower, where nobody could see him.

Dorcas patted her back with a smile. "I'm planning to ask Shacklebolt. Think he's got a date already?"

"Probably," Marlene said, with a rueful smile. "Though, I know he said no to the Ravenclaw bitch who asked him yesterday."

Lily snorted, "You only call her that because she cheated on Fawley - as if Fawley wasn't double timing her too."

"Yes, well, Jason's my cousin," Marlene conceded, shrugging. "And she's a triple timing little bint who - "

"Ugh, I cannot listen to another one of Marlene's rants on Victoria bloody Summers," Alice said, her voice muffled, for some reason, rummaging under her bed. "They're even worse than Lily's Potter rants."

James glared at Remus, as his shoulders shook with laughter. 

"But you reminded me of her," Marlene said, standing in front of the mirror and prodding at her skin, critically. "Merlin, Lils, I need a fag. Can I get the pack?"

Lily pointed to under her bed, as Sirius got up to take a look and James's eyes widened. Remus didn't know much about fags - except that Sirius smoked every once in a while, on the Astronomy Tower, or their balcony - and that it was a really unhealthy Muggle Habit he had picked up, partly to secretly rebel his parents and annoy them, and partly because he said it suited his aesthetic, and partly because why not hurry up the process if death?

"Thanks, Lily," Marlene said, digging out two, and opening the balcony door. "Come with?"

"Sure," Lily said, taking the whole pack out, and settled on the balcony, their feet dangling over the edge. 

She inhaled deeply and let it out in a perfect smoky ring, that Remus knew Sirius had been trying to learn for ages and still wasn't this good, with a smug grin towards Marlene.

"You know, Lils," Marlene said, shaking her head amusedly. "When I first saw you, you didn't seem the fag smoking, Beatles records hording, stoning little spitfire you are."

Sirius visibly perked at the mention of Beatles.

Lily laughed, sniffing in a jokingly haughty manner, "I contain multitudes. I have a school layer, and a home layer, and a street layer. Besides, if you grew up in as rough a neighborhood as I did, you would be able to smoke like this too."

Lily grew up in a rough neighborhood?

Remus looked at James, who was listening like never before - a level of concentration he didn't even give to Mcgonagall during Transfiguration.

"Ah, but I had the prissy pureblood lifestyle," Marlene said, waggling her eyebrows. "I wouldn't last a day on the streets."

"You really wouldn't," Lily said, chuckling, and looking out into the distance. "Not even Cokeworth. I mean, Severus Snape lives next door to me. That's how rough my area is. Gang bangers of Spinner's End, damn. Hogwarts' students are literally angels compared to my Muggle friends."

James, who had been glaring since the mention of Snape, was looking at Remus.

Which practically meant a very reluctant should we leave?

They, naturally, stayed.

"Oh, can I meet your muggle friends?" Marlene asked, all but giggling as she inhaled. "I've never met any muggles our age."

"Absolutely," Lily drawled, poking her cigarette butt. "I'll take you to a typical high school party - the last one I went to, was the last week of Summer. Parker's party - and I got so stoned, I stripped and dance half naked on a table top," she added, as James's already wide eyes, bugged, and Sirius gave a barking laugh.

Remus could almost imagine how that scenario would now play an interesting role in James's future Lily related dreams.

I nicked bottles from my mum's liquor cabinet, too," Lily said, abruptly. "Hey, Alice," she called, "Pass me the Four Roses bottle, its under my floorboard with a stasis charm."

Alice did so, passing glasses along with it too, and sat down too.

"I like being this, you know," Lily said, smiling dreamily into the distance. "Lily Evans - perfect prefect, prim and proper muggleborn, and Lily Evans - striptease with a Merlot, obsessed with Bohemian Rhapsody. Gives me freedom, somehow."

Leave it to Lily Evans to perfectly use tough alliterations while drunk and delirious.

James gulped, his eyes wide, and Remus hoped with all his heart that he would stay shut, and not profess his undying love right now.

Dorcas and Mary joined them outside, holding their own glasses with water in them already. 

"Hey, Lils, did you bet in the wager?" Marlene asked, suddenly. "I was talking to Pucey, that Hufflepuff - even Slytherins are betting."

"Really?" Alice said, raising a brow. "Beth told me they're calling it Wolfstar. Makes sense, doesn't it? Wolf and star because their names mean that."

Remus's eyes widened at that. What - did that - but - breathe, that didn't mean anything - it could be anyone -

"Of course I did," Lily said, snorting and coughing up smoke. "Black and Lupin forever!" she added, raising her glass like a toast. 

And Sirius - thank Merlin - took this as their cue to leave. He got up, pointedly avoiding looking at Remus and barked loudly, startling the girls and then, sniffing at the door.

When Lily opened it, he blocked the door long enough for them to walk out too, and Peter to scurry after them.

_

"I officially approve of Lily Evans," Sirius said as they walked into the boy's dorm. "She has Beatles Records that I need, and furthermore - a bigger supply of fags than me. James, I approve, and you have my blessing."

"James?"

"James? Prongs??"

"Potter!!"

James blinked as Sirius laughed, "Evans has finally broken James. Knew this was coming."

"She's - she," James said, his eyes still wide and disbelieving. "Just - wow."

_

"Sooo, Moony?"

"Yes."

Yes?"

"Yes."

___


End file.
